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Morgan v. Wal-Mart Stores8/10/2000
dache, Riff used three or four suppositories over approximately twelve hours; for the second, she used fifteen to seventeen suppositories over three or four days; for the third headache, Riff used five or six suppositories over two days. See id. Soon thereafter, Riff experienced discomfort in her right foot, and doctors determined she was suffering from diminished blood circulation caused by a toxic overdose of Cafergot. See id.
The court upheld the jury's verdict finding the pharmacy negligent for failing to warn Riff of the obvious inadequacies appearing on the face of the prescription. See id. at 1251-52. In doing so, the court expressly rejected the defendant pharmacy's contention that its only duty was to accurately fill the prescription. See id. at 1251.
In sum, courts holding that pharmacists owe their customers a duty beyond accurately filing prescriptions do so based on the presence of additional factors, such as known contraindications, that would alert a reasonably prudent pharmacist to a potential problem. We do not dispute that a pharmacist may be held liable for negligently filling a prescription in such situations, but we cannot discern from the relevant case law a trend towards imposing a more general duty to warn.
Nor do we conclude that existing Texas statutory law imposes such a duty. The plaintiffs contend that under the Texas Pharmacy Act and the administrative rules adopted pursuant to the Act, pharmacists have a general duty to warn customers of potential adverse side effects. See Tex. Occ. Code Ann. §§ 551.001-566.151 (West 2000). Plaintiffs argue that the duty arises by implication from the mention of "patient counseling" in the Act's definition of "practice of pharmacy," see id. § 551.003(33)(D), as well as from several references to pharmacists counseling or communicating with patients in the Administrative Code. See, e.g., 22 Tex. Admin. Code §§ 291.31; 291.33(b)(1)(D), (c)(1)(A), (c)(2)(A)(i)(I); 291.34(c)(3); 291.36(c)(2)(B)(iv), (d)(3)(A)(i)(IV) (2000). Plaintiffs emphasize the Code's repeated references to pharmacists communicating to patients information regarding "common severe side effects or adverse effects or interactions." Id. §§ 291.33(c)(1)(A)(i)(iv); 291.36(d)(3)(A)(i)(IV).
While these administrative rules demonstrate that pharmacists in Texas are trusted professionals with varied and important responsibilities, they cannot be reasonably read to impose a legal duty to warn patients of the adverse effects of prescription drugs. The imposition of a generalized duty to warn would unnecessarily interfere with the relationship between physician and patient by compelling pharmacists seeking to escape liability to question the propriety of every prescription they fill. Furthermore, a patient faced with an overwhelming number of warnings from his or her pharmacist may decide not to take a medication prescribed by a physician, who has greater access to and knowledge of the patient's complete medical history and current condition than the pharmacist. Instead of imposing such an onerous and counter-productive duty, the administrative rules reinforce the notion that although pharmacists act as final auditors of the technical accuracy of a prescription and its appropriateness with respect to a patient's known condition and medication record, they do not possess the extensive knowledge of a physician with respect to a patient's complete medical history and are thus not legally obligated to warn a patient of adverse drug reactions.
Therefore, we hold that any liability of Wal-Mart's for negligently filling Cameron's prescription for Desipramine must be based on neglect in the face of information on which a reasonably prudent pharma
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